Thanks to Roboquaker, we have a second set of images from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum near Washington DC.
These pictures show a small radio controlled car, rumored to be “Wheels” given the call sheet descriptions which suggest Wheels is fairly small. (Can you imagine it as a toy!?)
UPDATE: High Resolution images added. Reproduced under a creative commons license.
SHH have posted up a second set report to go with this:
I’m back one last time with a report about what I saw filmed at the museum on Saturday. Some potentially spoilerish stuff will follow, so be aware.
I arrived around 10 and stayed until they broke for lunch (around 2, 2:30). Got to see a lot of stuff filmed, it was really quite interesting stuff. Shia, Megan Fox, and John Turturro were all on set.
All filming pretty much took place around the SR-71 Blackbird today. When I first got there, Michael Bay was being pushed on a cart with a camera filming an RC car, an RC monster truck to be exact. It would roll past the side of the Blackbird and stop at the front. After several times doing this, Shia and Megan would then run and follow the RC truck along the plan to the front (Shia was holding what I can only describe as a plastic spoon probably standing in for something digital later). When he got to the front he would hold it up to the nose of the plane.
Potentially big SPOILERS may be here in this next part, but the next bit filmed was John Turturro and that unknown actor in the green hoodie from yesterday filming a scene facing the front of the plane. After some flashes of light, Turturro freaks out and yells “Decepticon! Get behind the MIG!”. So it’s official, the Blackbird is a Decepticon, or at least that’s what the characters think.
After that they took a long time setting up and filming the RC car rolling straight towards the nose of the plane and stopping. They then placed a two foot tall cutout of a robot (what the RC car will transform into) in its place and took some shots to get references for the FX team. And finally, they had the car roll towards the plane and stop, then Shia crawled into view and held up his “spoon” to the nose of the plane.
The last couple of scenes I saw before the broke for lunch was a scene with Megan Fox. It was far away from where we were allowed to stand and I couldn’t hear any dialogue but the tiny robot cut out was standing off camera and she was looking down at it while talking. And lastly, Shia stepped in the scene next to her and was yelling at someone off camera (though again I couldn’t hear any dialogue).
Following the Smithsonian revelation in the call sheet, fans rushed to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum knowing what, where and when to expect the Transformers filming crew to be doing. Topherlyon has sent TLAMB his pictures of the event, and HowDesign have some up too. There’s a set report following the gallery that provides some background information on the day’s events.
It is thought that the plane with the Autobot symbol on its tail, where no filming was taking place, is Michael Bay’s personal aircraft. You can also see several shots of the SR-71 Blackbird, which is now known to be Jetfire. Outside, Bumblebee is clearly visible as well as a green car (partly under covers), thought to be a Chevy Beat concept, almost certainly another Autobot.
Both Shia and Megan Fox have been spotted on set, though no clear photos snapped.
SHH have also posted a set report from Friday:
I’ve got a first-hand Transformers 2 set report from Friday.
The misinformation machine continues to roll for TF2. News was that TF2 would be filming in DC for a few days. Got a call from my buddy at 4pm yesterday that they were filming at the Air and Space Museum, no not the one in DC, the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum by Dulles Airport in Dulles, VA (30 –40 mins outside DC).
My friend and I quickly left work and headed over to the museum because it was only 5 minutes away. We arrived there and there was nothing to really indicate that filming was going on, it was very low-key. Found them filming inside and the only way you could tell it was for TF2 was from the crew’s badges (an Autobot logo followed by the number 2).
Met up with our buddy and watched a few scenes being filmed. Saw Michael Bay filming, but couldn’t make out what was going on too well because they kept us back far enough. Museum security and crew were heavily guarding the area from people taking photos. My buddy said Shia and Megan Fox were there earlier filming some scenes and Shia would be back soon. We finally saw what looked like Shia dressed in an old time pilots outfit (think aviator goggles and a white scarf around the neck). He was standing between a pillar and a mannequin dressed like him, along with several other mannequins dressed in different pilot outfits. They repeatedly filmed a security guard running by as Shia reached out and put a taser to his neck and the guard would fall to the ground.
We chatted with a crew member and he mentioned how not many people knew they were there and that they had been filming there since Thursday. At the time we were there, they were filming around the SR-71 Blackbird. I don’t know how legit this is, but the crew member said that the Blackbird is going to be featured very prominently in the film, but that people aren’t really supposed to know that. So if true, let the speculation begin as to what Transformer this will be [Jetfire].
They continued filming the taser scene as the museum closed and we were ushered outside. The crew member also mentioned they would be going outside to film some scenes in the parking lot later. So when we got outside we found the coned-off parking lot with a few cars sitting huddled together under tarps. One was clearly Bumblebee, the rims and parts of the yellow bumper were visible. There was also a lime green car. From the look of the shape and the front bumper I would guess that it is either a Toyota Matrix or a Scion xA, but I’m probably wrong. The third car had a very strange shape and I could not make it out.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get close enough to the cars to get decent pictures on my camera phone. We waited around for a while but by 6:15 we had to leave. They were still inside at that time so we didn’t get to see the new cars actually being filmed.
So there you have it. They are filming there again today and I plan on going back to check out some more. I’ll be sure to send along anything new I find out.
Oh, one last thing, Michael Bay flew to the Museum (which has its own runway) and there on the runway sat a white plane with the Autobots logo on the tail. Pretty freakin’ cool. Can’t remember if he had that during filming for the first one, but he’s got it now!